Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The south-west corner of Soho Square in 1812 with Frith Street to the
left. Two men with dogs are herding cows and a flock of sheep with the
aid of dogs. Perhaps they are heading for one of the local butchers who
served the numerous eating houses in the area.
No. 88 Dean Street retains an unusual eighteenth-century Rococo shop
front; it may originally have been a music shop.
Bedford Square is full of very well preserved period features. It was built in 1775-80
and had many distinguished residents.
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Eldon, lived at No. 6 between 1802 and 1819 and seems to
have had rather a miserable time. Once when he was unwell he was visited by the Prince
Regent, who refused to leave until he had badgered Eldon into appointing one of his cronies
to Chancery. Then in 1815 he was besieged in his home by Corn Law rioters for three
weeks - they even tied a noose to a lamp-post outside the house. To get to Parliament one
of the highest officials in the land was reduced to sneaking through the gardens of the Brit-
ish Museum, escorted by John Townsend, a Bow Street Runner. And finally his daughter
eloped from the house with architect George S. Repton, giving the cartoonists a field day
at the Lord Chancellor's expense.
